


Feed The Beast

by WInger



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Acting AU, Crack, Developing Relationship, Drugs and Alcohol Use, Ensemble Cast, Friendship, Gen, Humor, M/M, Parody, Romance, S4e5, Satire, Team, Voice actor references, celebrity, fandom references, romeo and juliet - Freeform, slightly aged up characters, team fic, the voltron show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 19:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17987135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WInger/pseuds/WInger
Summary: Sometimes, Hunk feels lonely in his concern about the rate at which their director is selling out artistic integrity for fanservice. Their troupe’s second most popular actor abruptly returns from his unexplained 2-year long MIA, and all the director decides to do is have him French kiss Hunk’s best friend on stage.It’s all for the fans,he said.Everyone will love it,he said.---Shiro sighs. “Come on Hunk. You know the reason. Give Keith sufficient time to get cold feet and back out of this climatic scene at the end?” He was holding the script open to its second last page. “Get out.”The page was mostly blank, and all it said in the center was Lance and Keith kiss deeply and passionately. End play.Once upon a time, Hunk would have been naïve enough to believe that Coran had made an honest typo, confusing the names of his characters with his actors. Not these days, not anymore.---





	Feed The Beast

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy with a glass of chill. I wrote this a half a year ago and couldn't bear it sitting around in my drafts any longer. An homage to my favourite episode of VLD.

_End of hiatus_

For two years straight, give or take the weekends, they’ve been carrying _The Voltron Show_ and its weekday-specific performances with but also without Keith Kogane. His name was still listed on their promotional material, though his person wasn’t with them on the stage. For continuity’s sake, or so their director claimed, Allura had to take on double roles as Princess as well as Red Knight. She didn’t seem to mind, for Allura was as beautiful as her heart was generous. Meanwhile, opinion among their audience seemed equally split on unquestioning acceptance and boiling outrage, which was no doubt due to the new kiss scene Coran wrote in for the Red and Blue Knights. Then again, the combined number of lines that the Princess and the Red Knight have were still less than what Shiro’s White Knight has, so she probably didn’t feel that much of an increase in pressure. And back then, Hunk, and the others had been more concerned with holding their show together and selling the new romance plot twist as much as possible instead of looking too hard into where or why their second highest billed actor had suddenly just up and ran off.

The problem is that now, after they’d enjoyed two years of unprecedented success sans Keith Kogane, the man was suddenly making his return out of literal damned nowhere (they asked Shiro and even he didn’t know). He’s brought with him some kind of big furry predator on a chain leash that he _says_ is a dog, an extra 20 centimeters in his height and shoulders, a half-assed apology and an apparent desire to rejoin their troupe. Like it would be as easy as waltzing through the front door. Like the _Voltron_   _Troupe_ was so desperate that they would take Keith back without first having him make some kind of concrete amends. Ha! Jokes on him. He’s hardly even their best or even their most beautiful actor, and in the years that he’d dumped them, the rest of them had underwent great growth in their own individual ways. They didn’t _need_ him here. Everybody was an experienced stage actor now, while god knows what Keith had been doing those two years on his own. Body-building? Sleeping with his groupies? The point being-

As Lance’s tirade went on, Hunk simply folds his arms and nods at strategic points. He’s not like his best friend, who’s always got to be the loudest voice in any and all arguments, but he agrees whole-heartedly that their troupe shouldn’t just take Keith back so easily, and like, _forgive_ the disappearing act he pulled and sustained for two entire goddamned years. Guy just doesn’t deserve it!

“I can’t accept this,” After a lengthy speech, Lance’s voice was cracking from strain. “You can’t just waltz back in like this, all grizzly and hot, and expect us to welcome you with open arms!”

Well yeah, that’s right, point made and taken, but somewhere in the middle of Lance’s concluding statement, something gave Hunk pause. Lance had repeated himself with the “waltzing back” thing again, but he added something new, too. Something weird and dubious-sounding. Did he just call Keith hot?

He turns to look at his friend. Lance’s arms are spread in front of him in a way that looked kinda like he _is_ waiting for a hug. Shiro wedges himself in the middle of everybody and starts placating the tension. “Guys please,” he says. “I personally am _thrilled_ to have Keith back. Allura can return to focusing on her original role, and more than anything, I’m sure Coran will be excited to develop new scripts featuring a full-time Princess again.”

“Well. I mean, it’s not like I really minded being the Red Knight, but I see where you’re coming from Shiro-“

While the adults have their adult talk, Hunk increases his scrutiny of Lance, who’s resolutely glaring at Keith, who’s in turn looking at the floor and just ignoring everybody. There was something very familiar about this whole scene – there was something distinctive about the atmosphere whenever Keith and Lance were the ones in the middle of it, period. Furthermore, Lance’s staring was so intense, Hunk wasn’t even sure if he could interrupt it. Or should. He looks past him at Pidge for support, but she was on her device, not giving a single damn about the fight. Typical Pidge.

“Look, the _Voltron Troupe_ is a team effort, it can’t just be the few of us debating back and forth. Pidge? Hunk? What do you guys think?”

How could the rest just carry on like they didn’t hear what Lance had just said? _Maybe_ the fact that Keith had the largest number of fans despite doing the least fanservice lent weight to Lance’s opinion of him, but he didn’t fall within Hunk’s personal range of “hot”, so he couldn’t, on good conscience, say that he was with Lance. Even as Lance shoots him a look of betrayal, he hesitates.

“Whatever,” Pidge finally speaks up. “I wanna do something new anyway. Now that Keith’s back, maybe we can put on something quality for a change.”

Damn, Pidge is _really_ growing that attitude these days. Nearly everybody winces. Before either Allura or Shiro could continue to defuse the growing mutinous energy in the room, Coran’s unmissable cologne wafts over, and everybody tenses. Their director – sorry, _auteur,_ storms in with a flourish and a fresh stack of documents. “The _Voltron Troupe_ Takes On Romeo And Juliet!” he shrieks, personally handing Allura and Shiro their scripts and slapping everybody else in the face with theirs. “We’re Going Classical!”

Coran Heironymous Wimbleton Smythe is the long and almost certainly fake name of their Visionary Leader, director slash manager slash scriptwriter slash producer. He believed in leading by example, and was thus always embodying his Three Perfect Acting Principles: his physical movements is comprised of odd and jerky but memorable angles; he never speaks, only barks; and he has a pose to transmit all the emotions he is otherwise unable to portray due to the restrictive nature of his speaking pattern. In his entire three-year career with the _Voltron Troupe_ , Hunk has witnessed Coran displaying precisely two different moods, and they were high as a kite and sober. It was an open secret that Coran took some kind of productivity drug to churn out his always-expanding library of sure-hit scripts. Pidge has and will continue to be the only one with any kind of solid criticism for those things.

“Romeo!” Coran shouts at Lance. “and Juliet!” He points at Keith. “Shall Kiss, At 8pm Tonight, Unless Death Or Lord Capulet Do Them Part!”

* * *

 

_Table Read_

The meeting, which was only fifteen minutes short, was supposed to have adjourned, but like always Lance couldn’t just let things go without a comment or two. “I don’t want to be _his_ Romeo!” he screams, chasing Coran as he left . “ _I’m_ the pretty one!!” Not to look down on his efforts to fight for his beliefs, but any and all resistance against Coran was futile and the others barely bothered to turn in his direction. For all his crazy, Coran was always indisputably right. Fans couldn’t get enough of them and all their careers couldn’t be more solid and on-track. As one, they flipped open their scripts and started studying it in greater detail.

Except that now there’s one more person in their midst than usual. “Why are you here?” Hunk asks Keith, who had been silently and graciously accepting all that his job and position asked of him. 

Keith looks to him with a deadpan stare. “I missed you guys,” he says without inflection, some kind of indecipherable, beaten-down look in his eyes.

Hunk couldn’t perceive if that remark was sincere or sarcastic, so he opted to just kind of ignore it. “Not that, but, uh, sure. I mean – why aren’t you also going after Coran about the casting?”

“Honestly don’t think I’m in a position to negotiate anything with Coran, or this team,” he explains, demonstrating a lot more self-awareness than Hunk would have thought to give him credit for. Keith held the title of being the densest block in their troupe, but then again, they were all in their twenties now. He must have matured.   

“And I don’t get why Lance is still so immature about these kinds of things. What’s so hard about a romantic pairing between two guys anyway? We living in the stone age? It’s _Coran’s_ script. He’s always like this.”

Nope, still dense. Or is it willfully ignorant? Hunk’s judging expression returns to his face, and he decides to look down on the script, where the first page states the casting:

 _Romeo_ – Lance

 _Juliet_ – Keith

 _Lady Capulet/Lady Montague/Rosaline_ – Allura

 _Lord Capulet/Lord Montague/Tybalt_ \- Shiro

 _Mercutio, Nurse_ – Pidge

 _Friars –_ Hunk

“Man, Coran’s always like this!” He exclaims. The main couple characters go to Keith and Lance, because the fans are big on them individually, but _especially_ together. The other good-looking supporting characters – Shiro and Allura, playing _all of them_. Exposition characters – Pidge, in charge of long-winded ones that delivered either highly technical explanations or excruciating philosophical arguments. Miscellaneous characters that are crucial for one specific purpose only – Hunk. Because he’s Humorous Hunk. This time he gets assigned “Friars”, as in plural. He knows that there were Friars John and Lawrence in the original. But for this he just gets the two of them condensed into one package? “ _Fantastic_. Allura, seriously, when are you and Shiro gonna stop letting Coran take advantage of you guys like that? You guys are talented, but not in the way his scripts are always requiring you to be multiple characters and everywhere all at once.”

“Thank you, Hunk, that’s very sweet of you. But what about yourself? Aren’t you tired of being typecasted by Coran all the time too?”

“Well…” Sure, he felt a little of that “I’m done with this” attitude while going over Coran’s typical casting decisions _again_ on what’s supposed to be a fresh script. But he also kind of meant the “Fantastic” he tacked on earlier. From two years ago till now, his self-esteem had flourished without stopping. He hated getting with the same stereotypical supporting roles, but he was in his element in these characters that were his comfort zone - he got a lot of leeway to improvise, for one. And it was great fun to have the opportunity to be creative on stage without having to shoulder the kind of burden that the lead roles always get. 

Before Hunk could even attempt to put all those feelings into something short and sweet, Pidge answers for him by going: “Yeah, he is, but he loves this team too much to go.”

Everybody coos. “No, no, no,” Hunk says, suddenly desperate to change the subject. “I mean, kinda, but like, you know.” Shiro and Allura were staring at him with small smiles that made him squeamish. He waved the script in his hand. “You know, for a script this big and Keith coming back, we’re just getting thrown into a live performance this very evening with _out_ rehearsals?”

Shiro sighs. “Come on Hunk. You know the reason. Give Keith sufficient time to get cold feet and back out of this climatic scene at the end?” He was holding the script open to its second last page. “Get out.”

The page was mostly blank, and all it said in the center was _Lance and Keith kiss deeply and passionately. End play._

Once upon a time, Hunk would have been naïve enough to believe that Coran had made an honest typo, confusing the names of his characters with his actors. Not these days, not anymore.  

* * *

 

_Opening Night_

Now Hunk might not have actually read Shakespeare, but he was certainly familiar with its significance as a great cultural and historical meme. He wiki-ed it a little after reading the script, and obviously that doesn’t make him the most qualified person to judge Coran’s interpretation for accuracy. Then again, Juliet was a girl, so what gives? And by that, he meant: Why force Keith into a dress when their troupe had female actors?

“I am _telling_ you guys, this script is really inappropriate for our times.”

“Thanks for your concern, Hunk,” Keith growls. He sounds a bit breathless, but for all that Allura and Pidge were acting around them, it seemed like a potential cause of concern to apparently no one else but Hunk. It _surely_ had something to do with the corset Allura was binding around his chest. “But the show is starting in five minutes and I really can’t afford you distracting me now.”

He’d forgotten what a joy it was to work with Keith in tense and fast-moving situations. Allura pulled the strings taut and huffed out: “Keith, could you _please_ just stop speaking for a tick and hold your breath?”

With two yells – one of triumph and the other from crushed ribs – Allura successfully ties the corset. Keith groans like an unhappy river horse.  

“How are we feeling, Keith?”

“I feel like I can only do half an hour tops,” he manages to say.  

“I feel like this is a really bad idea,” Hunk tries objecting again.

“Five Minutes to Show!” Coran’s caffeinated voice booms over the speakers. It’s a recording that none of them have managed to figure out how to turn off, not even Pidge. Every single time, the countdown starts ten minutes prior to the show, and when they’re on the final minute, the countdown switches to ticking off the seconds. Even after hearing it for so long, the recording never lost its ability to keep everyone on edge. Allura was now applying glitter to Keith’s eyes and cheeks. When she turns him around, it strikes Hunk that he still looked a hell lot like Keith, just in make-up, and nothing much like Juliet, who-

“Isn’t Juliet supposed to be blonde?”

Keith rolls his eyes but ignores him, going over his script one last time. Finally done with him, Allura grabs Hunk and gives his costume one final check. “Hunk,” she sighs. “This isn’t the first time we’re having this conversation.”

“Look okay. I’ll keep it concise. Let me just go over one or two points. I don’t understand why Romeo’s ex-girlfriend is changed to his twice-removed cousin. Or why he no longer ends up killing Tybalt, when in the original, Romeo kills Tybalt very dead for killing his best friend, thereby trigging the main drama of the story to happen and setting up the tragic ending for the lovers, meaning that those are two crucial plot points to Romeo’s character, and-“

“I thought your policy was to never challenge Coran’s perfectly adequate scriptwriting!” Allura interrupts, which was something she only did when she felt really stressed. Coran’s screechy voice ticking down the seconds till the curtain rises was a hellish environment for anybody to be in.

“Yeah Hunk,” Pidge chimes in. She was sitting on top of a crate, applying polish to Keith’s hands. “I’m the one that provides the criticism around here.”

“Yes, exactly! Thank you. Take it away.”

“Hunk,” Pidge says. That tone of voice said that if she wasn’t so focused on her task she would be staring him down until he was intimidated into silence. “You’re missing the point. _Again_. Factual accuracy doesn’t matter to the _Voltron_ _Troupe_. Consumer satisfaction does. This script’s entire purpose is to reintroduce Keith back into the team and feed our always-hungry shippers. So maybe Romeo has to be toned down from a guy with questionable judgement and morals to someone pure of heart and soul. Literally the only thing shippers want out of any of romance play _we_ put on is a perfect vanilla couple, flawless and easy to love –” She jabs a finger towards Keith’s nose, choking on a word. “Okay I can’t say that ship name. That’s still too gross for me. But you know what I mean!”  

“Shut up,” says Keith.

“And if Lance and Keith and even you, Hunk, are unhappy about the way our troupe’s version of classical love story is going to end with a climatic French kiss, then…”

“… Then what?”

“Then nothing. Nobody cares, Hunk! The people just want them to kiss!”

* * *

 

_Three-quarters in_

Rekindling old chemistry with a returning team member? Juggling multiple roles? With zero rehearsals? Well, that’s why they weren’t called _talent_ for nothing, right? The play progressed so smoothly it was like Keith hadn’t been apart from them for more than a single day. That was, up until the point of roughly three quarters in. 

Hunk’s Friar had only just given Juliet the fake-death potion, which Keith’s Juliet was only supposed to take later on, to open up the final act, but instead, with shaky hands and a very pale face, Keith drinks the potion straight away. It was just colored water, but he faints uncannily realistically into Lance’s arms. That was when Hunk’s heart started to beat really fast and really loud, because something had gone really wrong, and he wasn’t just remembering the script wrong (it’s happened) or confusing it with things that took place in the original – because Lance’s Romeo was _still_ on the stage with them.

With zero hesitation, Lance sinks to the floor dramatically, cradling a passed-out Keith in his arms. The audience is silent, still under the impression that this is all part of their ultra-modern interpretation bit. Hunk himself is speechless. Lance, too, doesn’t say a thing. Keith naturally is silent- Did he seriously just faint for real? Hunk looks over the couple in the middle of the stage and sees the others hidden in the curtains, looking surprised and concerned.

At the same time as Hunk decides to take charge of the situation and go “ _Bring her to the room, Romeo!_ ”, with the obvious implication that Lance should immediately carry Keith off the stage, Shiro strolls onto stage with his Lord Capulet cape and booms, “ _What is going on here?_ ”

Hunk couldn’t see Lance face from his angle, but he could see crystal clear when Lance put his ear onto Keith’s chest to listen for a heartbeat – aw come on, Lance! Couldn’t he have done something subtle, like press his fingers to the jugular? Whatever Lance heard – or didn’t hear? – he seemed to be still in-character when he pulled Juliet-Keith close to his chest and muttered, “ _Lord Capulet…_ ”

Hunk holds his breath, torn between wanting to help versus letting those two play this out as naturally as possible.

“ _Is that Juliet?”_

Lance-Romeo’s only movement was to tighten his hug around Juliet-Keith, keeping it away from Lord-Shiro’s line of sight. _“Romeo!”_ Hunk urges, turning and heading for the wings on the right. Now that he was out of the sight of the audience, he let his full panic show as he tried to telepathically communicate with Allura and Pidge on the opposite wing. _Keith actually fainted! -_ Hunk expresses with his face. _We’re so fucked!_ -Pidge seemed to be responding with hers.

A beat passes, a little too long, and for the life of him Hunk couldn’t imagine what might be holding Lance back from _exiting the damned scene already_ when another bout of inspiration spurs Shiro on to conspiratorially demand: “ _Is she pregnant?”_

That. That was the moment that Hunk realized that they had collectively fucked up so bad, they’d crossed into the void with no hope of return. They were going straight to hell for butchering Shakespeare like this. Hunk had never wanted to smash his forehead against something hard as much as he did now. It’s also the moment Lance finally chooses to seize. Looking solemn, he carries Keith towards Hunk – who didn’t just look passed out, by the way, he looked completely dead – until he passed the curtain and his face turned white in fear. Hunk was signaling to Allura, hoping she would take the hint and come out to save Shiro. Thankfully, she does.

He turns around to check on the unlucky lovers. Lance was desperately fumbling at the corset straps, and Pidge had run over with a bottle of water, desperately fanning Keith’s face with somebody’s script. Watching them, Hunk could feel a sick feeling form in his gut. “ _God_ , please don’t tell me he’s dead.”

“Nope, not yet.” Lance barks, sounding strained.

“What uh, what do we do?”

“The show must go on,” Pidge says, quoting Coran. They could hear the beginnings of an argument between the Capulet Lord and Lady out on the stage. “You _know_ what Coran would expect.”

With a venomous “Fuck!” Lance rips the corset off, tearing the middle of the dress apart with his bare hands. No reaction whatsoever from Keith, but Pidge and Hunk were alarmed. “Dude! Coran’s gonna kill you!” Hunk cries.

“Get another dress,” Lance orders Pidge, who scurries off immediately. “Give me an angle to improvise with,” he says to Hunk, shockingly level-headed. “Come on, Hunk, we all know you read the original!”

“I didn’t- But- Okay look. You just need to kiss Juliet. That’s the most important thing.”

“To the _plot_?”

“To Coran! This is Coran’s show! Think about the fans! Your fans! What are they waiting to see?”

“How do you expect me to work in a kiss scene now that Shiro’s set up the _Is she pregnant_ thing? How am I supposed to make out when the other person is _passed out?!”_

“You’re thinking way too much with time we don’t actually have. You just have to get out there and do it so that we can end this thing quickly!”

“This one!” Pidge interrupts, holding up a white dress. All three of them looked at it in disappointment – it looked like a potato sack compared to the maroon gown that Keith had been wearing. Outside, Allura and Shiro sounded like they’d reached the peak of their argument. Time was ticking and they didn’t have much of a choice, so the two of them got to stripping Keith while Hunk experimentally slapped his face.

“Don’t mess with his makeup!”

“Well what else can I do?!”

Pidge grabs Hunk’s arm in a sudden vice grip, eyes bright and sharp. “One of you give him mouth-to-mouth while I change dresses for him.”

“Ew not me,” Hunk says immediately. “Lance, you ripped up the corset so you’re obviously no good with costumes. Step aside and revive him, please.”

Lance throws them a shrewd look. “CPR doesn’t work on a person that’s fainted!”

Their attention is diverted when they hear a sharp wail from the stage, followed by a loud slap, and then a horrible roar, and even more terrible wailing. _What the hell?_ Hunk thinks. Shiro has stormed off the stage by the time he turns for a look, busying himself at the light controls and gradually dimming the stage.

Pidge rushes off to prepare to open the third act. Allura shows up next to Hunk not long after, her clothing in slight disarray and fresh tear tracks still wet on her cheeks. Hunk almost couldn’t bring himself to look at her, somehow feeling like he was intruding on something intensely private, but Allura is all business when she appraises Keith’s new costume. “My goodness!” she cries.

Hunk’s stomach drops. All of a sudden he was considering the very real and very close possibility of getting fired because of this fiasco. “Is it that bad?”

“That’s Juliet’s nightgown! It’s–” She cuts herself off and grabs Lance, obviously deciding to prioritize the crisis over the costume. “You have to get changed too!”

They hurry off, and it’s only then that Shiro hurries over. His eyes were steely and a lot more intimidating than usual, but that wasn’t about to stop Hunk from gawking at the red handprint on his left cheek. “Pidge will buy us some time with an improv monologue, but it won’t be long,” Shiro warns.

Pidge with a monologue, at this part of the play? She was probably playing the Nurse. “What about Coran?”

“Well, the good news is that he’s not actually here tonight. We’ve got all the time between now and tomorrow morning, when we have our usual post-opening meeting, so yeah. What do we have now?”

“Oh thank god. We have to wake Keith,” says Hunk, feeling immense relief, and judged that now wasn’t the time to start blaming Shiro for the bomb he’d unwittingly dropped into their laps. _All_ their laps. “Lance said CPR’s not the solution, so…”

Shiro grabs Keith’s shoulders and shakes him. “Keith! Come on, wake up!” It doesn’t have much of an effect, and he doesn’t get to do it for long before Allura reappears with Lance, now dressed in the matching half of the nightgown set. “You guys need to stand-by, Pidge is almost done. Get ready!”

“What scene are we doing?” Lance demands, as Shiro and Hunk help adjust Keith in his arms - so that he looked less dead, more sleepy.

“Improvise.” Allura calls from behind. “Romeo and Juliet consummate their marriage! Good luck!”

“What does that mean?” Lance asks, eyes focusing as he slipped back into character, waiting for Pidge’s cue to enter.

“It means to complete the union,” Hunk tells him, as graceful a euphemism as any.

* * *

 

_End the play just end it_

Juliet lies on top of a pile of sheets on a rectangular block in the middle of the stage, sleeping or dead, no one could know for sure. The Friar stands next to her, keeping vigil, observing her for the slightest movements. Romeo is holding one of her hands silently. She remains still and unmoving, unawares as to how much the two next to her were anticipating her wakening.

As the tension mounts in the heavy, somber silence, Romeo loses his patience and gets up to pace. One quick glance at his expression showed a mix of frustration, fear and worry over his beloved. The Friar quickly looks back down at Juliet. His robes are the perfect weight and thickness to hide his small hand movements from the audience. No one could see him pinch Juliet’s arm, trying to hasten her awakening.

Romeo opens his mouth. Improvisational poetry flows forth. He uses as many different words as possible to describe his love for his Juliet. Emboldened by the fact that everybody’s attention was on Romeo, the Friar ups the intensity of his actions by digging his fingers into Juliet’s side. At last, a small reaction – her eyebrows twitch very slightly. Romeo, too, grows bolder. He turns his poetry into song. He sings about their union. Their bond. How he’d loved her from first sight. How far they’ve come. Their marriage. Their pact. The death potion. The unhappy fathers. And now… the baby.

Romeo ends his song in the middle of the stage. His body directly aligns with Juliet’s midsection, blocking it from the audience’s view, so the Friar knuckle-punches Juliet’s middle with as much force as he dared. Her eyelids flicker. Yes!

Romeo slowly turns around. His eyes are wet, and a single tear is streaking down his face. They make eye contact and the Friar nods once. He could be acknowledging Romeo’s feelings. Or he could be blessing the couple. Or sending a signal that Juliet was close to emerging from her comatose state. With slow, dramatic footfalls, Romeo walks over to her bed and sits. He slumps his shoulders and looks resolutely into her face. Another tear oozes out of his eye.

The Friar takes the cue. He gets up, bows, and purposefully walks off the stage. The couple’s fate was in each other’s hands now. The Friar joins his friend and accomplice, Juliet’s Nurse, at the wings of the stage, and watches the rest of the scene unfold from the relative safety of the curtains.

“It’s working, I got his eyelids to flicker,” Hunk affirms to Pidge.

“It doesn't look enough,” Pidge says, doubtful. Lance was lifting Keith’s torso, like he was about to go in for a kiss. Then he lets go like he was thinking better of it. There’s an audible sigh from the audience at the missed romantic opportunity, but the few of them who knew better could see that he did it to snap the back of Keith’s head against the rock-hard block they were on.

“Now _that’s_ more like it.”

Lance had more tricks. He kept shifting the brunt of his weight around Keith’s body. His left hand went to Keith’s neck, lifting it slightly and squeezing. At the same time, for the benefit of the audience, Lance’s right hand held Keith’s cheek tenderly, and he brings his forehead down against Keith’s.

“Any moment now, come on!”

Hunk drums his fingers. Pidge squeezes one of his arms. Allura is holding a clenched fist against her mouth, and Shiro is squinting to try and glimpse at Keith’s face.

The moment Keith finally regained consciousness might not be visible to them, but the crowd sees it and gasps. Hunk knows for sure that the instant Keith came to his full senses, he would ruin the delicate ending sequence that Lance had masterfully crafted by being confused. Which is why Pidge’s finger is hovering above the button to drop the curtains, and Hunk’s hand is poised to kill the lights.

 _“Juliet?”_ Lance whispers. He kisses Keith.

Him and Pidge give them and the audience five seconds to memorize the moment before decisively ending the play.

**Author's Note:**

> VA references made:  
> \- Keith is Juliet because people agree that he’s pretty, as AJ Locasio (Lotor) did in one of his tweets  
> \- Bex Taylor-Klaus (Pidge) describing Steven Yeun (Keith) as “elusive and enigmatic” on the official Voltron IG Story  
> \- Steven Yeun complaining about getting too much makeup on his face for [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlSquhSgNQ8) Korean/American short skit about him trying to become a social media star  
> \- Josh Keaton (Shiro) responding to a fan question at Momocon 2018 about his favorite ship being the Black Lion  
> \- Jeremy Shada’s (Lance) character in the high-school comedy show: Tyler Pendergast from _Mr. Student Body President_ , a slick politician-type who brings his 200% into running his high school’s student council 
> 
> Fun fact: This fic's working title was "Give Them The Klance".


End file.
